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REVIEWS Designing With Tile, Stone & Brick: The I School St. , Glen Cove, Creative Touch by Carol Soucek King, PBC International, 11542, 1995. $42.50 hardcover; 192 pp. N. Y. Also particularly impressive were artist William Tull's unique (and here the adjective is appropriately used) designs for a group of Arizona homes. These residences are nestled among gigantic boulders and rock formations, some that are as much as 18 ft. high. The Adobes de la Tierra, part of a planned community, prove that it is possible to build on a very difficult site without disturbing the beauty of the location, incorporating it into the design of the house instead. The book also includes directories of the showcased architects, designers and photographers and a glossary of specific terms that relate to types and finishes of tile, stone and brick. The combination of photographs and accompanying text make a feast for the eyes and-despite the rather rarefied economic airan informative resource for anyone interested in extraordinary home design. -Patti and William Feldman, with over 20 years ' experience as contractors, copublish Construction Dream houses are not just the stuff of reverie; some of them actually get built. This largeformat book features recent projects by over 50 acclaimed international architects and interior designers working with tile, stone and brick. The book's 250 full- and half-page color photographs of almost exclusively upscale residences explore the contemporary use of these age-old materials in diverse settings: southern New England, Beverly Hills, the Oklahoma plains, an English horse farm, Bali, Maui, Sao Paulo, Bophuthatswana and places in between. The conceptual and technical information that King provides about each installation is useful. For example, she describes the specific type of tile, stone or brick used in each application; she also speculates about the intent of the architect, designer and/or client. Because King has paid attention to details such as patterns, shapes, textures, sizes and colors of materials, armchair perusers can spot design themes-and perhaps trends-around the country and around the world. Stone, in particular, plays a prominent role in many of these designs, particularly when the client has expressed a desire for the architecture, interiors and landscaping to be consistent with the view or in harmony with the natural surroundings. King has highlighted some particularly spectacular uses of slab and tumbled marble, limestone, bluestone, volcanic stone, flagstone and granite. One of the more fascinating showcases is an earth-sheltered home in northern Connecticut, where the fieldstone used for facing reinforcedconcrete retaining walls and on freestanding walls was found on the site. In this New England home, the architect and the client successfully realized the intent of making the home at times seem indistinguishable from the woods that are beyond it. 134 Flne Homebuilding office in Chappaqua, New York. & Computer Newsletter from their The Art of Kitchen Design: Planning for Comfort and Style by Johnny Grey, Cassell, Villiers House, 41/47 Strand, London, England WC2N 5JE; distributed by Sterling Publishing Co. Ine., 387 Park Ave. 8810, 1994. $29.95 hardcover; 176 pp. N. Y. 10016s., New York, Edited by Andrew Wormer as the creator of the "unfitted" kitchen. First used to describe the concepts of his own work, this term later became the name for a line of cabinetry he designed for Small bone. The fundamental planning rationale in Grey's kitchens is that of dedicated workspaces that are "generally restricted to around the length of two outstretched elbows," with work-top materials and heights varying to suit different activities. His work exhibits a strong respect for ergonomics, including the use of rounded work surfaces and cabinets, and cabinetry that is designed around circulation and work flow. Above all, there is a style to Grey's work. It is beautifully colorful (as is much current English work), sometimes whimsical, richly detailed and always innovative. Grey questions many kitchen-design rules in this book. He says of the work triangle: "Apart from never finding out which three facilities were included in this triangle, I require at least 13 different facilities from my own kitchen ... I could easily add three or four more if a comfortable sofa, a place for the telephone, or a desk is included." Why do our current dream kitchens employ overly long runs of uniformheight, uniform-depth counters at the expense of more efficient storage? Why the preponderance of eye-level, half-depth cabinets vs. open shelving? In words and pictures, Grey asserts that we could be doing much better. The first section of the book, "The Sociable Role of the Kitchen," is a short, highly pictorial history of the kitchen from the 17th century to today. Grey maintains that we are perhaps returning to where we started from: the kitchen as the heart of the home, the kitchen as a social room rather than a mere workspace. The next three sections of the book examine the kitchen as a social space, presenting case studies of more than a dozen Grey-designed kitchens. Using photographs, floor plans and sketches, Grey explores his wide-ranging themes and ideas, explaining in the process how his principles of design actually work. The final section, "Ideas in Detail," presents a close-up look at specific materials and methods that recur in the kitchen case studies. The book is not without its flaws. The layout As a cabinetmaker and designer, I have been aware of contemporary English cabinetry for several years, first through the company Small bone, which opened offices in several cities in this country, and then through reading English kitchen-and-bath and home-design magazines. Then, as now, I was amazed at the richness and detail of English cabinetry. Nearly every recent innovation in American cabinetry can be traced to work that was done in England years prior. So it was with interest that I saw Britain's leading kitchen designer had written a book on the subject. Johnny Grey is perhaps best known and format seem only loosely related to the titles of its chapters and sections. Perhaps, too, some readers might be disappointed that this text is not a how-to book. It does not tell one how to go about designing a kitchen. Instead, it shows how it was done in 15 or 20 examples. Though one will learn much from Grey as he describes the problems and solutions in these designs, the book is about the art, not the science, of kitchen design. Filled with fine color photography of Grey's work, The Art of Kitchen Design is both a beautiful coffee-table book and an in-depth examination of Grey's design ideas. Having read the book several times, I see and learn more each time. Grey's book has changed the